Newton Fund – Institutional Skills Strand-
Training Programme Title:
Training Process in Social and Environmental
Intervention in the Amazonian Context
SECTION 1-Objective:
To promote the training of college students and professionals from the
state of São Paulo, Rondônia and in the United Kingdom about the social and
environmental challenges of the Brazilian Amazon forest and in the theoretical
and practical knowledge for the creation of social environmental intervention
projects in the Amazon reality, starting with the Lower Madeira River
communities in the State Rondônia.
SECTION 2- Description of the Project
Need for training -
To provide an
interdisciplinary training in the social and environmental challenges of the
Brazilian Amazon, to both students and professionals from the State of São
Paulo and Rondônia, in order to encourage the cooperation between these 2
regions and the development of grassroots socio-environmental projects in
communities living along the Lower Madeira River, in the State of Rondônia.
By improving the knowledge of the Amazonian context through both a
theoretical basis as well as hands-on practical work in riverside communities,
NAPRA seeks to encourage a cultural and knowledge exchange of these 2 very different parts of Brazil and
inspire its participants to disseminate in their social circles a more informed
and experienced notion of the Amazonian context in order for Brazil to come up
with substantial solutions to the many challenges of the Amazon based on a
simbiosis of academic and traditional knowledge, community work, cooperation
and socio-ecological responsibility.
Despite the nationally growing recognition and concern
that the Amazonian Region needs to be protected, for most Brazilians (and today
“most Brazilians” means “urban Brazilians”) very little is known about it,
except general ideas that it is a very ecologically rich place, that it has
indigenous inhabitants (many times wrongly seen as a homogeneous cultural
group), and that deforestation is a serious issue. Apart from that, very little
else! Amazonian states like Acre, Roraima, Pará and Rondonia have little to no
exposure in Southern Brazil. This is a reason why important political and
economic decisions are made without public participation or awareness in the
very small circles of power, whose interests are more often than are not, very
different from local peoples´.
Take for example the giant Belo Monte Hydroelectric
Dam. It is the largest project ever financed by the Brazilian Government,
taking place in the middle of the forest with very questionable benefits for
society, causing huge social and environmental impacts to many local
communitites and still, it is a issue neither really talked about nor generally
understood.
It reflects certain skill deficits on the part of the
executors of such a project, of which we can
point out a few: narrow and purely short-term economic thinking, lack of
communication with other disciplines and fields of knowledge, non-democratic
developmental imposition, centralized mega-construcion developmental strategies etc. From the general population,
we can equally mention a few: lack of critical thinking, discussion and
dialogue on the topic, understanding of energetic alternatives for the country
etc.
Therefore, an understanding of the Amazonian
context, its cultural diversity, its history of economic development and the
many alternatives to it, are definitely skill deficits, even among educated citizens,
as if the importance of having an understanding of the Amazon context were
exclusive to only those such as polititians,
economists, anthropologists and environmentalists. This is another skill
deficit the training programme addresses. Our training programme has, and will,
keep focusing on joining students and professionals from many different areas
such as medical sciences, natural sciences,
engineering, arts, pedagogy and education, anthropology, linguistics,
entrepreneurship, communication, and also local community leaders. We aim to
get them all to study and work together on topics like education in health, the geography of the amazon, the historical
processes of occupation and development, the causes of deforestation,
conservation strategies, community participation and social mobilization, the
elaboration and methodology for the development of socio-environmental
projects, public policies, interpersonal relations in traditional communities
on the Madeira River, social technologies for productive 'extractivist' chains,
NAPRA´s and other organizations´ successful stories and projects, evaluation of
projects, report writing and others.
Within this vast multidisciplinary team and
curriculum, the training program addresses the skill
deficits of critical thinking and alternatives to economic development, team
work within different spheres of knowledge, cooperation, team leadership,
cultural sensitivity, horizontal forms of organizing and for those more
interested in deepening involvement with the organization, there is also
administrative skills within the third sector, group coordination, fundraising
etc.
All of these skills are addressed and presented
within a Popular Education approach, which is the main pedagogical
strategy adopted by NAPRA. In short it is a strategy that rejects a purely
top-down educational approach and relies on dialogical means to share
knowledge, taking always in consideration the existent knowledge within the
communities and the work groups. In this way, we at NAPRA are confident that we
can enhance the overall goal of understanding the complex Amazonian context,
its many challenges and acting upon it, together, optmize the benefits of
diversity to bring about positive socio-political, economic and environmental
changes in the short , medium and long term.
Since the training programme takes 1 year, the 5 key
objectives of the training are to be pursued on a yearly basis.
Objective 1: To offer training to 60 students and
professionals. Specific Impacts: To make these participants aware of the
complexities of the Amazon region, to inspire them to be vehicles of positive
change in both the perception of, and action in, the Amazon, able to
communicate about the Amazon in a more informed way, to work within a
multidisciplinary team and develop, execute and evaluate socio-environmental
projects with cultural sensitivity and community empowerment and participation.
Methodology:
Objective 2: To offer training to 4 young people from the communities
NAPRA works with. Specific Impacts: The same as in Objective 1, but with a more
direct and continuous contact with the communities, the potential to form
well-informed and articulated local leaderships as well as having an ongoing
and direct cultural exchange among participants of the training. Methodology:
Objective 3: To develop and execute 2
empowerment projects for each community. Specific Impacts: Practical, hands-on
execution of community projects, direct cultural and knowledge exchange,
direct, short term improvement of some aspects of community life, improvement
of community self-esteem.
Objective 4: To offer public presentations on
socio-environmental Amazonian issues in Universities in São Paulo. Specific
Impacts: To bring and strengthen the socio-environmental cause of the Amazon to
people and particularly students in São Paulo, to inform, generate discussions
and critical analysis of the issues, as well as to inspire people to learn more
and get involved with the topic. Methodology:
Objective 5: To offer public presentations about
socio-environmental issues in the Universities of Rondônia. Specific Impacts:
The same as in objective 4, but with a particular emphasis in developing
interest in their own region, instead of looking at Southern Brazil as a
“better, more modern, more ideal” region. We question the materialistic,
industrial, technocratic and sometimes euro-centric worldviews presented in
mainstream media and development discourse in general. Methodology:
LATER VERSION
Training Programme Title:
Training
Process in Social and Environmental Intervention in the Amazonian Context
SECTION 1-Objective:
To promote
the training of college students and professionals from the state of São Paulo,
Rondônia and in the United Kingdom about the social and environmental
challenges of the Brazilian Amazon forest and in the theoretical and practical
knowledge for the creation of social environmental intervention projects in the
Amazon reality, starting with the Lower Madeira River communities in the State
Rondônia.
SECTION 2- Description of the Project
Describe the training/capacity building programme addressing the
following criteria:
Need for training programme
In no more than 600 words, please describe the skill deficit the
training/capacity building programme is addressing, within an institutional
context as well as a national/regional context by setting out which new skills
the trained staff/partner community will gain and how these will contribute to
achieving/ enhancing the overall goals of the institutions involved. Please
also refer to the more detailed guidance in the call. I
I think you
could perhaps map out briefly the
landscape of the current solutions and identify missing opportunities for
positive change, showing how NAPRA can fill the gap more explicitly, so selling
your solution more effectively (showing a causal relation between your
knowledge of the gap and your strategy), although there is little space here.
Despite the internationally growing recognition and concern that
the Amazonian Forest needs to be protected, for most people in the world,
including Brazilians from other parts of the country, very little is known
about it. Most of the people only know general ideas: that it is a very
ecologically rich place, that it has indigenous inhabitants (many times wrongly
seen as a homogeneous cultural group), and that deforestation is a serious
issue. Amazonian states like Acre, Roraima, Pará and Rondonia have little to no
exposure in Southern Brazil where most of the Brazilian population abides. This
is a reason why important political and economic decisions for the region are
made by the decision makers considering the old paradigm of “progress” that
bring huge impacts for the forest without any public awareness.
Take for example the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam. It is the
largest project ever financed by the Brazilian Government, taking place in the
middle of the forest, causing huge social and environmental impacts and still,
it is an issue neither really talked about nor generally understood by the
general public in Brazil.
In Brazilian Universities, although it is subject of the utmost
importance for everyone, the Amazon Forest issues are only discussed in very
small and specific groups. It is sad to notice that it even happens in
Universities based in the Amazon states, where everything is taught through the
lens of the modern western society urban “progress” model. There the indigenous
and other traditional communities are understood to be backwards, and the best
thing to do for them is to integrate than in the national society, based on the
urban way of life.
In this negative context, young people from those communities
whose way of life bring on itself key elements for a new kind of development
that conserve the forest, PLEASE CLARIFY start to feel shame about their roots
and dream about leaving the community and move to the city.
This training based on the understanding of the Amazonian context,
its cultural diversity, its history of economic development and the many
alternatives to regional development with the forest and its people at its
centre, is a way of changing this whole situation for the future.
To provide an interdisciplinary training in the social and
environmental challenges of the Brazilian Amazon, to both students and
professionals from the State of São Paulo, Rondônia, and the UK will encourage
cooperation between these 3 regions and the development of grassroots
socio-environmental projects in communities living along the Lower Madeira
River, in the State of Rondônia.
By improving knowledge of the Amazonian
context through both a theoretical basis as well as hands-on practical work in
riverside communities, NAPRA seeks to encourage a cultural and knowledge
exchange of these 3 very different places and inspire its participants to
disseminate in their social circles a more informed and experienced notion of
the Amazonian context in order for Brazil to come up with substantial solutions
to the many challenges of the Amazon based on a symbiosis of academic and
traditional knowledge, community work, cooperation and socio-ecological
responsibility.
Training for each region is specifically justified as follows:
1 – Training for universities in the Brazilian economic heart aims
to disseminate this specific knowledge to the whole of society to enable participation
in decisions concerning the forest. Also we aim to generate increased research
and attract more professionals focused on this new paradigm for the development
of the region, with wider and longer-term economic thinking.
2 – Training for riverine youth will not only reestablish the
self-esteem related to their origins and identity, but will also imbue in
the their communities another point of view different from the one presented by
mainstream media. And lastly there is the potential to form well-informed and
articulated local leaderships for the future.
3 – Training for UK academics and professional aims to extend our
collaborators network adding international experience and skills to the task of
building and fighting for a new way of development for the Brazilian Amazon
Region.
Objectives of the training
programme
In no more than 500 words, please describe the objectives to be
pursued by the training/capacity building programme and the specific impacts it
is looking to achieve, and the details of the methodology it will use to
achieve these. This should relate to, but not repeat, the information given in
the project summary and activity plan below. Please also refer to the more
detailed guidance in the call.
Since the training program takes 1 year, the 5 key objectives of
the training are to be pursued on a yearly basis.
Objective 1: To offer training to 60 students and professionals.
Specific Impacts: To make these participants aware of the complexities of the
Amazon region, to inspire them to be vehicles of positive change in both the
perception of, and action in, the Amazon, able to communicate about the Amazon
in a more informed way, to work within a multidisciplinary team and develop,
execute and evaluate socio-environmental projects with cultural sensitivity and
community empowerment and participation.
Objective 2:
To offer training to 4 young people from the communities NAPRA works with.
Specific Impacts: The same as in Objective 1, but with a more direct and
continuous contact with the communities, the potential to form well-informed
and articulated local leaderships as well as having an ongoing and direct
cultural exchange among participants of the training.
Objective 3: To develop and execute 2 empowerment projects for
each community. Specific Impacts: Practical, hands-on execution of community
projects, direct cultural and knowledge exchange, direct, short term
improvement of some aspects of community life, improvement of community
self-esteem.
Objective 4: To offer public presentations on socio-environmental
Amazonian issues in Universities in São Paulo. Specific Impacts: To bring and
strengthen the socio-environmental cause of the Amazon to people and
particularly students in São Paulo, to inform, generate discussions and
critical analysis of the issues, as well as to inspire people to learn more and
get involved with the topic. Methodology: (Does methodology need more
explicitly explaining?)
Objective 5: To offer public presentations about socio-environmental
issues in the Universities of Rondônia. Specific Impacts: The same as in
objective 4, but with a particular emphasis in developing interest in their own
region, instead of looking at Southern Brazil as a “better, more modern, more
ideal” region. We consider that the future of the forest depends on a new model
of development that considers the forest and the indigenous and traditional
people at its core. Methodology:
Objective 6: To offer public presentations about the alternatives
for economic development in the universities in UK. Specific Impacts: The same
as in objective 4, but with a particular emphasis in developing interest in
students, researchers and professionals from the UK to collaborate with the
creation and the improvement of this new type of development as a positive tool
to preserve the forest.
These parts that follow are parts that were on the needs for training
chapter but I remove. It might be useful somewhere.
This is another skill deficit the training
programme addresses. Our training program has, and will, keep focusing on
joining students and professionals from many different areas such as medical
sciences, natural sciences, engineering, arts, pedagogy and education,
anthropology, linguistics, entrepreneurshipship, communication, and also local
community leadership. We aim to get them all to study and work together on
topics like education in health, the geography of the Amazon, the historical
processes of occupation and development, the causes of deforestation, conservation
strategies, community participation and social mobilization, the elaboration ??
and methodology for the development of socio-environmental projects, public
policies, interpersonal relations in traditional communities on the Madeira
River, economy based on the 'extractivist' chains that maintain the forest
stand, NAPRA´s and other organizations´ successful stories and projects,
evaluation of projects, report writing and others. (a general rule for writing
in english is to break up into short sentences where possible)...
Within this vast multidisciplinary team and
curriculum, the training program addresses the skill deficits of critical
thinking, and alternatives to economic development, team work within different
spheres of knowledge, cooperation, team leadership, cultural sensitivity and horizontal
forms of organizing. For those more interested in deepening involvement with
the organization, there is also administrative skills within the third sector,
group coordination, fundraising etc.
All of these skills are addressed and presented within a Popular Education approach methodology?,
which is the main pedagogical strategy adopted by NAPRA. In short it is a
strategy that rejects a purely top-down educational approach and relies on
dialogical means to share knowledge, taking always in consideration the
existent knowledge within the communities and the work groups. In this way, we
at NAPRA are confident that we can enhance the overall goal of understanding
the complex Amazonian context, its many challenges, so enabliing collaborative
action to optmize the benefits of diversity. In this way we aim to bring about
positive socio-political, economic and environmental changes in the short ,
medium and long term.
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